<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>What Is Said On the Shore, Stays On the Shore by dmhello</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257308">What Is Said On the Shore, Stays On the Shore</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmhello/pseuds/dmhello'>dmhello</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Person-Looking Friend [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aromantic Asexual Charlie Weasley, Aromantic Charlie Weasley, Asexual Charlie Weasley, Autistic Charlie Weasley, Bill is a Good Dad, Blue Hepburn (OC) (mentioned), Charlie is a good uncle, Gen, queer platonic relationship (mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:07:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257308</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dmhello/pseuds/dmhello</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie finds Louis on the beach sulking at his visit to Shell Cottage. They have a talk that gives him the courage to tell his parents something he's been avoiding.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bill Weasley &amp; Charlie Weasley, Charlie Weasley &amp; Louis Weasley, Fleur Delacour/Bill Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Person-Looking Friend [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990201</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>64</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>What Is Said On the Shore, Stays On the Shore</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>A little one-shot/squeal to my story "Charlie's-Person Friend." It doesn't affect this plot too much. Blue Hepburn, Charlie's queer-platonic partner being mentioned once, and it is known to the characters that Charlie is autistic. Otherwise, I stuck to canon.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Charlie loved Shore Cottage. It was just the right mix of childhood chaos and rustic elegance to make it the perfect place for Bill and Flur’s family. Charlie was visiting for Dominique’s birthday, and the party had lasted double his social meter. Overall he was exhausted, and to top it all off it had taken an hour for Molly to leave Charlie at the cottage. She kept insisting he stay at the Burrow, but he wanted time with his brother and his family.</p><p>Bill tapped him on the shoulder, bringing Charlie back to life. He must have been staring out into the ocean for fifteen minutes. Not a clean dish in sight except the one in his now pruney hands.<br/>
“Sorry,” he coughed, turning the tap on, and getting back to his task from Fleur “drifted off.”<br/>
“It’s been a long day” Bill nodded, picking up a spare cloth to start drying. Usually, they would just let magic do the dishes, but this was Fleur’s special china. They couldn’t risk it with how much Dominique loved the set. It had to be done slow.</p><p>“Just once I’d like for a small birthday party. Just to see what clean up is like in comparison.” Bill joked.<br/>
“Hate to break it to you Billiam, but she only invited the family, no friends. This is the small party.”<br/>
Bill pauses for a moment, blue eyes going wide “remind me to never let any of them turn 17.”<br/>
“Remind yourself you can hire staff for parties, dumbass.” Charlie snickered, getting a smack in the back with the towel. Bill shushed him for language or something.<br/>
“Seriously, you can hire an elf for the day. It’s not a big deal. Just write the Union and I’m sure they’ll send over their best for ‘Minister Weasley-Granger and the Great Harry Potter’s relative!’” Charlie giggled at his attempt at the elf accent.<br/>
“Stop, they probably would too. Oh, Merlin now I really want to.” He finally sat back up, his face red from laughter “and I told you, you keep calling me Billiam I’m going to start calling you Charles! It’s not even my name.”<br/>
“I know that William” Charlie shot back with a stick of his tongue. “And I don’t mind Charles. The Hepburns and a few others back in Romania still do.”<br/>
“Fancy” Bill said, wiggling his eyebrows. Charlie just rolled his eyes and got back to work. He knew Bill was just teasing. His brother was one of the first people he told about being aromantic and asexual, along with Tonks, and his housemate back at home back during their time at Hogwarts. It was odd when he first moved there calling the Burrow ‘his parent’s house’ but it resonated with him, seeping through to his veins too much to call it anything but home. Now he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, doing anything else. Even if the English quidditch team was a serious possibility back in the day. Ultimately, quidditch was fun, but it wasn’t his blood fuel. It could never top the dragons and home.</p><p>Charlie and Bill joked around as much as one could when handling fine china. With all the plates and the teacups and the weirdly shaped butter dish back in their rightful spots (up high away from tiny hands), they could finally relax. The place didn’t look like a wild heard came running through as it did an hour ago. Now the girls were upstairs, the sun was getting ready to set, and Charlie could watch the ocean and not feel bad about it.</p><p>“Is-is that Louis?” Charlie asked spotting the blonde figure crouched on the shoreline.<br/>
“Yes,” Bill sighed “he ducked out an hour ago. Does it every time.”<br/>
“Can’t blame him. Even I had to take a break from the noise before it got too much.” Charlie nodded.<br/>
“Yes, but I wish it didn’t bother the girls so much. They want him there for every second of everything now that it's summer.”</p><p>Bill ran his hands through his shoulder-length hair. Charlie always got a ping of envy at the motion. He loved his own hair, especially since he’d been shown how to take care of it. Bill’s hair was all Weasley: bright-colored, thin, and wavy. Charlie’s was all Prewett: now an auburn color as he aged, thick, and with the Black’s signature wire/curly texture. If Charlie tried to do that he’d nearly take his head with it.</p><p>“I should bring him in. It’s getting dark.” Bill said, rubbing at his tired eyes.<br/>
“I’ll go,” Charlie said putting a hand on his shoulder. “You look beat Bill. I’ve got this one.”<br/>
“I’m so glad you stayed over,” he said squeezing Charlie’s hand and melting into the nearest chair with a bottle.</p><p>===</p><p>Charlie observed Louis as he walked down the beach. The blond boy had been sitting knees to his chest, throwing rocks into the waves with bigger and bigger arcs. He whipped his head around when a rock skipped by, bouncing five or six times (not that Charlie was counting...but it was totally six) before disappearing into a wave.</p><p>“Uncle Charlie” Lois breathed, his bare feet pitter-pattering a hole in the wet sand. “Do I have to go in?”<br/>
“Just wanted to check on you,” Charlie said, not willing to make the boy go by force. There was too much disappointment seeped into Louis’ red eyes as he met Charlie’s own brown. Charlie knew that feeling. “Do you want to be left alone some more, or can I sit?”</p><p>Louis patted the sand next to him, nodding.<br/>
“Are you cold? Your feet look a little blue there” Charlie asked.<br/>
“I like the feeling” he replied with another splash into his foot-shaped holes. It hadn’t really answered Charlie’s question but he’d take it.<br/>
“Yeah? I was never a big fan of sand, but I have a thing about textures” Charlie hummed “it’s nothin' compared to wool though. That stuff just makes me want to throw my skin.”<br/>
Louis wrinkled his nose but nodded. “I just needed a break. It’s all just too much. They said it would just be us this year, and it wasn’t.”<br/>
“Must have been a shock. Not to mention the lack of mental prep.” Charlie knew that feeling too. He hated surprises, like when his parents and Ginny sprang a visit on him for his first Christmas in Romania. His stomach hadn’t been okay for at least four days after their arrival.<br/>
“I know they’re my family and I should like them, but sometimes I just want to be by myself and- and not be here. I don’t know. It probably sounds so selfish.”</p><p>Charlie moved closer to the boy. He opened his mouth a few times, not knowing how to start.<br/>
“I felt that way too with Weasley gatherings, and even with my siblings.” He said, swallowing from the dry feeling creeping down his throat. He wanted to do this right. “I never even looked like them. I was a spitting image of my godfather Fabian, your grandma Molly’s brother. I always got it with him and his brother, they both understood me, but they died in the first war so I lost that understanding early on. Then it was just me and the rest of the extended Weasleys. And I didn’t seem to ever find a spot with them. I loved them all, and they were my family, but I didn’t feel like a part of their set.”<br/>
“How’d you deal with it?” Louis asked, head perked up and eyes focused on Charlie’s every word.<br/>
“I went to the other side of Europe” he replied dryly with a chuckle.<br/>
“Did it help? Did you miss the Burrow?”<br/>
“I missed how it felt” Charlie sighed “but I needed it, the space, my own path.”<br/>
“But they’re family, I should want to be with them and I don’t. Isn’t that bad?”<br/>
“No,” Charlie said firmly. “You’re stuck with them for now, so you can either try and cherish it, or just get through it. Either way is fine. They won’t be the only family you have forever. I moved and found other people, and it made me realize a lot of things. Mostly the fact that my family was great, but what I needed was my own space, and that’s okay. You can still love them to pieces and not want to be around all of them at once all the time.”</p><p>Louis looked out at the sea, red eyes darting from wave to wave and back to Charlie.<br/>
“Will I ever fit in?”<br/>
“You’ll fit where you fit. Louis. You can’t force it.”<br/>
“Like a puzzle piece?”<br/>
“Not at all,” Charlie said quickly “you don’t have to fit in like that, because there is no puzzle. There’s just a bunch of humans who are very different, coming together because it’s generally nicer that way. It’s better to be with people than not, but sometimes you just have to find the right people.”<br/>
“So more like a tapestry? Everyone is a different thread but still together? And the patterns change but it’s still the same carpet?”<br/>
“That’s more like it” Charlie nodded, ruffling Louis’ hair. “It’s getting dark. You want to head in? Get some hot chocolate?”<br/>
“Yeah, we got the raspberry one you like last week!”</p><p>===</p><p>Charlie slumped onto the chair next to Bill, grabbing the glass of fire whisky he was offered.<br/>
“You were out there a while,” Bill said pouring himself another glass. “Still the fastest I’ve seen him come back to the house. What did you say to get him sprinting back from the beach?”<br/>
“I just talked to him is all,” Charlie said. He didn’t know how much Louis would want him to reveal about their conversation. Charlie would sure be mortified if Molly or Arthur were told any of his complicated feelings on family back when he was Louis’ age. (If anybody had bothered talking to him about it back then.)<br/>
“He did mention something about this supposedly being planned as a party just between the five of you?”<br/>
“That was the plan until yesterday,” Bill nodded “someone mentioned it to Mum and then word got out, and Dominique wanted them here. I couldn't say no to Dom plus everyone else. I understand the shock of the big group, but I don’t know why he keeps on secluding himself. I've tried asking about it but he just sidesteps it. I’m worried.”<br/>
“He’s the baby among the babies Bill. Plus he's the only one to pop tiny leathery wings when he gets mad. You can’t blame him for not feeling in place with this family of what? Hundred cousins now?”<br/>
“Let's not overdo it,” Bill jived, shoving at Charlie’s shoulder.<br/>
“Joking Billiam,” Charlie said hands up in surrender “but seriously, you remember how it felt when we went to the Weasley gatherings back in the day? All our cousins were talking about Hogwarts and graduation, and we were still trying to get them to play pretend?”<br/>
“Merlin, I forgot about those.” Bill breathed.<br/>
“Head too full of big brother moments?”<br/>
“That was back when it was just the two of us. How do you remember all of that?”<br/>
“You know my brain, it’s either all or nothing when it comes to memories,” Charlie said knocking on his forehead.<br/>
“Thank you for that. I needed that reminder.”<br/>
“Any time you want to hand one of the kids over to my new townhouse, I’m all arms.” Charlie joked smirking.</p><p>Bill chuckled, shaking his head.<br/>
“How are you and that partner of yours, anyway? You finished renovations yeah?”<br/>
“Yeah, it was on hold for a while. Blue was handling a deal to expand the shop. They’re going to start it next year with all the paperwork finally done, a mess that was.”<br/>
“Wow” Bill breathed “I never pictured you with a business person. I mean I know Blue’s a Slytherin and all-“<br/>
“Bill” Charlie warned.<br/>
“I know you’re not together, together” Bill explained, “I know queerplatonic relationships aren’t like that.”<br/>
“No, I know you know that part, but not thinking my partner would be good at business? The hell man?”<br/>
“Oh” it took Bill a few seconds of Charlie smirking at him to realize he’d been joking. “Oh, you-now look who’s acting Slytherin. And here I thought your Gryffindor-ness was rubbing off on them.”<br/>
“Come off it Bill, we’re adults, the houses haven’t mattered for a long time.”<br/>
Bill gave a fake gasp “are you even English?”<br/>
“I have lived longer in Romania” Charlie chuckled “Double citizenship and all. The Houses stopped mattering to me a long time ago. No one knows what the houses even are back home. I can say a dragon seems like a Hufflepuff all I want. I’ll only get a ‘what the hell is a Hufflepuff?’ back. It’s like when I tried to use a quill and my boss just silently slid me a pen.”<br/>
“Oh, I got that in Egypt too. So many weird looks from the goblins that will haunt me forever.”</p><p>Charlie snorted into his drink, trying to imagine his stocky tree of a brother getting intimidated. Especially something like looks at his feather writing utensil. It seemed more on-brand for him than Bill.</p><p>“Besides, it’s kind of silly, dividing everyone up when you’re full-fledged adults. I’ve grown past just being brave a long time ago.”<br/>
“Still, blaspheme, next you’ll be telling me you like coffee over tea.”<br/>
“Well-“<br/>
“Don’t-“ Bill cut in, a look of the fakest horror turning real.<br/>
“I can make it taste like chocolate biscuits Bill, can you do that with tea? I don’t think so!”<br/>
“You absolute fuc-“<br/>
“...Dad?”</p><p>Bill just let out sputtering noises at his son, turning around in his chair towards Louis as slow as he could. Loius stood at the foot of the staircase, twiddling his thumbs at the speed of his darting eyes.<br/>
“Hey, I didn’t hear you come down,” he squeaked out, Charlie behind him trying not to burst out laughing. It looked like Louis was trying to have a serious moment by the looks of his stiff posture and crunched up brow. He didn’t want to ruin it by laughing.</p><p>“Well-I-“ Louis started, hands clutching at the ends of his shirt “I wanted to tell you something I want to do, about school.”<br/>
Bill straightened, putting his glass of fire whisky down. “Yeah, okay, you can tell me anything, Louie. Come here and sit. You’re shaking.”<br/>
“No, I-“ Louis swallowed. Charlie looked at his nephew, silently telling him to breathe. The boy looked like he was going to either break down or explode from anxiety. Whatever it was he was trying to tell Bill, it mattered, and it made Charlie’s own stomach churn thinking something could make his nephew this anxious concerning Bill.</p><p>Louis took a deep breath in and out before crunching his eyes shut, shouting “I don’t want to go to Hogwarts!”</p><p>Bill stilled, scowling a bit before clearing the expression quickly as he could. “Where’s this coming from? You never mentioned it before?”<br/>
“I want to go to Beauxbatons, but I thought it’d make you all sad that wasn’t with you” Louis looked at Charlie again, confidence growing at the proud smile he was giving his nephew. “But I want to go, I want to go where mom went.”</p><p>Bill blinked a few times, not knowing what to say. Finally, his mouth/brain jump-started with a kick to the legs from Charlie.<br/>
“Sure-yeah, that’s not a problem at all. I want you to be happy Louie, we all do. We’d never force you to go to a school you don’t want to be at for our sakes.”</p><p>Louis beamed at the pair, looking almost ready to cry. He ran over, hugging Bill so hard he almost fell out of his chair.<br/>
“Thank you!” Louis squealed “I love you. I’m going to go tell Maman!”<br/>
“She’ll be ecstatic,” Bill said, glancing at Charlie and smiling back down at Louis. “I’m ecstatic. You’re happy Louie. That’s all that matters to me. I’m sorry if we made you think you had to go to Hogwarts just because we wanted you to. I never want my wants to squash what makes you happier with your life, okay?”<br/>
“I know you didn’t mean to.”<br/>
“Meant to or not, I still need to apologize for it. I’ll try my very best not to do it again in the future, okay?”<br/>
“Okay, Dad.”</p><p>Bill kissed his son’s head before the blond sprinted up the steps, the creaking noises of the cottage following him all the way up to Fleur. Charlie smiled up at Bill. He'd always been there for Charlie growing up, supporting him through his toughest times even when Charlie felt stupid about what upset him. He'd been a shoulder to cry on, even when Charlie wanted no one to see him cry. He'd even started to grow out his hair in solidarity when Molly wouldn't let Charlie keep his long. He wasn't perfect, but it was clear he had learned from their time growing up. He was trying his best, and learning best he could to make his best better. Charlie was proud of him.</p><p>“That was...out of nowhere” Bill half chuckled half sighed, running his hands through the top of his hair. A gleam in his eyes showing through as he glanced Charlie’s way. “Your little talk at the beach wouldn’t have sprung that on, would it?”<br/>
Charlie shrugged, smirking into his glass to hide his knowing expression. “Maybe you can talk to him if he's ready to tell. Until then, what is said on the shore, stays on the shore brother-o-dear.”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>